Home security cameras? What do you use?

[opentoe]

What do you guys use for home security, as in cameras? I have been using a couple of Vivotek cameras that are mounted inside the house pointing out the corner of a couple windows. They record 24/7 and keep 30 days worth of MP4 files using their free recording software which is pretty good. Only runs on a Windows, and that's why I'm trying to get a Windows VM up and running to switch my security/camera system over to my unraid box. I would like to stick with Vivotek because they are completely IP based and allow you to directly record to a network share. They don't force you to use a cloud service or subscribe to anything. What is everyone else using? I'm looking to upgrade my cameras, I would like to stick with Vivotek because they are the only ones I'm familiar with that allow you to directly record to a network share and give you all the flexibility you need with a home network. All the other "home" cameras I have looked at do not record 24/7, don't allow direct recording to your home network, only record to a SD card, charge subscriptions and only used cloud based services. I really don't want to look at the mailman delivering mail to my  house, so I really don't care about alerts and stuff like that. I do have a panel with movement sensors, window sensors, but I'm keeping the cameras separate because of previous statements. Having 30 days of 24/7 of full color video is just fine for me. I'd rather spend good money on good cameras like a couple HD Vivotek models and not pay for any cloud services or subscription models. So, anyone familiar with security cameras out there that are IP based and can record directly to your home network? I've isolated the Vivotek brand because they give you the full ST5701 Software Suite for free which usually costs a lot of money. Once this software is installed you can add as many Vivotek cameras as you like, setup your local network recording, and even do alerts if you wanted to. No extra fees or cloud space needed. There are lots of security type cameras out there now, but most are subscription/cloud based and have extra fees. Just wondering if I'm still going to use Vivotek going forward or not. Seems like I am.

 

 

[Brucey7]

I have 12 set up, all of them are 5 megapixel, some inside, some outside (no blind spots), they record onto a dedicated Hikvision DVR with two 4TB purple disks.  I can only keep 2 weeks video, but if I lose something in 2 weeks and don't miss it, then I don't care.  The high MP means I can zoom in and get incredible detail.  The cameras are seen as "Standard" ONVIF and the outside ones can see more than 100 yards at night with 4 IR LED's.  They are cabled up on gigabit POE, although only the downlink to the recorder runs at gigabit speed, each camera runs at 100MBps.

 

I installed them after my maid's 16 year old daughter stole my daughters iPad, she was stupid enough to admire it the day before (we got it back)

 

They have also come in handy when I had a visit from a Thai policeman trying to shake me down and pointed out the camera and told him it was recording his conversation too, it wasn't, but it did the trick, he wished me good luck and disappeared never to be seen again.

[kizer]

Interesting. Opentoe.

Does your cameras record when something moves in front of them or just records constantly.

I'd like your solution, but Id only want something to record when something wakes them up from crossing their line of site.

[opentoe]

I have 12 set up, all of them are 5 megapixel, some inside, some outside (no blind spots), they record onto a dedicated Hikvision DVR with two 4TB purple disks.  I can only keep 2 weeks video, but if I lose something in 2 weeks and don't miss it, then I don't care.  The high MP means I can zoom in and get incredible detail.  The cameras are seen as "Standard" ONVIF and the outside ones can see more than 100 yards at night with 4 IR LED's.  They are cabled up on gigabit POE, although only the downlink to the recorder runs at gigabit speed, each camera runs at 100MBps.

 

I installed them after my maid's 16 year old daughter stole my daughters iPad, she was stupid enough to admire it the day before (we got it back)

 

They have also come in handy when I had a visit from a Thai policeman trying to shake me down and pointed out the camera and told him it was recording his conversation too, it wasn't, but it did the trick, he wished me good luck and disappeared never to be seen again.

 

I don't want to attach myself to a proprietary recording machine/DVR. I've only owned Vivotek cameras, so I don't know what other brands let you directly record via IP to a network share. I assume your cameras can only record on Hikvision's DVR's. If that's the case then you can't record right to an unraid share or a simple network drive. That's what I'm doing now and want to continue that and not get locked into a corner with proprietary hardware.

 

I looked up a random Hikvision camera and looks like they do support SMB and network shares. Are you recording to a DVR for a reason or just not using your unraid box to do it? If you have a maid and a security system like that then I'm sure you have some money. I bet just one of those camera's cost $600+.

Network Storage: | NAS (Support NFS,SMB/CIFS)

[opentoe]

Interesting. Opentoe.

Does your cameras record when something moves in front of them or just records constantly.

I'd like your solution, but Id only want something to record when something wakes them up from crossing their line of site.

 

The camera itself has it's own graphical interface which you can setup motion detection alerts. Then you can have them FTP'ed, or emailed to you. You can configure it to email you snapshots of the motion it detected or a small video. I've only tried out the motion detection using FTP and it works good. It gives you the freedom of not having to use an app or pay extra fees all the time. I have an old Vivotek models, so I'm curious as to how the newer models progressed. These are more expensive camera's then your average Logitech/D-Link stuff but have more professional features and enable recording directly to an unraid share or any network space. I originally posted this thread as being curious to see what others are using, I don't mind sticking with Vivotek since their recording suite is very capable and free and doesn't lock me into using a special DVR or recording device.

 

[ysss]

Opentoe: have you looked into Blue Iris software? For $50, it lets you mix and match up to 64 cameras and has loads and loads of features. I use mine with mobotix, hikvision and foscam cameras. (Soon to be adding + testing Areconts).

 

I also really like their mobile client (android and ios) which lets you playback recordings too.

[Brucey7]

My first intention was to try and record to an unRAID share, but that is only half the issue, the real issue is how do you go through all the recorded images to find what you are looking for.  Your choice of solution has to driven by the analysis software. The open standard for cameras is ONVIF, so my requirement was ONVIF compatible cameras, the next issue was recording 5MP cameras, it's technically complicated because the bitrate is very high.  I chose a HikVision Digital Network  Video Recorder (NVR) because it was cheap ($250) and had fantastic tools to quickly find an event.  For example, my daughter claimed someone had stolen her purse with some money in over a weekend.  We could zoom in onto her purse and then jump to every occurrence of it moving and we were soon able to determine she lost it somewhere else.

 

The cameras were about $150 each on eBay from China, they also have the ability to trigger record on movement, and to have privacy zones (we have them in the bedrooms too), we don't bother with the privacy zones or the trigger on movement (TOM is done in combination with the camera and the recorder, either can set up the trigger area).  I was torn over whether to blank off the beds as a privacy zone but having 2 daughters, I would rather gather evidence if there was some kind of physical assault.

 

It was a learning curve, one of the first things I learned was that standard POE switches are no good, my 24 port switch (12 POE, 12 normal) will only support 6 cameras and in theory it shouldn't support any, switches have to be high power POE, choosing the right lens is vital too, 5MP cameras use different lenses to other cameras.  Where a high mega pixel rate comes into it's own is zoom. Any evidence you gather is fairly conclusive.

 

On reflection I should have bought 1 camera, 11 dummy cameras and no recorder and let my maid see the picture from the one camera.  It's enough of a deterrent.

 

There is another benefit in having a dedicated NVR.  I am recording at a very high frame and bit rate, it's well in excess of continuous fast (100Mbps) ethernet, from memory I think it was about 400Mbps.  To analyse the recording afterwards it's far quicker to have the data analysed within the NVR (i.e. at bus/SATA type speeds) then through an ethernet link.  My two purple 4TB drives are fairly hammered  24/7.

[opentoe]

My first intention was to try and record to an unRAID share, but that is only half the issue, the real issue is how do you go through all the recorded images to find what you are looking for.  Your choice of solution has to driven by the analysis software. The open standard for cameras is ONVIF, so my requirement was ONVIF compatible cameras, the next issue was recording 5MP cameras, it's technically complicated because the bitrate is very high.  I chose a HikVision Digital Network  Video Recorder (NVR) because it was cheap ($250) and had fantastic tools to quickly find an event.  For example, my daughter claimed someone had stolen her purse with some money in over a weekend.  We could zoom in onto her purse and then jump to every occurrence of it moving and we were soon able to determine she lost it somewhere else.

 

The cameras were about $150 each on eBay from China, they also have the ability to trigger record on movement, and to have privacy zones (we have them in the bedrooms too), we don't bother with the privacy zones or the trigger on movement (TOM is done in combination with the camera and the recorder, either can set up the trigger area).  I was torn over whether to blank off the beds as a privacy zone but having 2 daughters, I would rather gather evidence if there was some kind of physical assault.

 

It was a learning curve, one of the first things I learned was that standard POE switches are no good, my 24 port switch (12 POE, 12 normal) will only support 6 cameras and in theory it shouldn't support any, switches have to be high power POE, choosing the right lens is vital too, 5MP cameras use different lenses to other cameras.  Where a high mega pixel rate comes into it's own is zoom. Any evidence you gather is fairly conclusive.

 

On reflection I should have bought 1 camera, 11 dummy cameras and no recorder and let my maid see the picture from the one camera.  It's enough of a deterrent.

 

There is another benefit in having a dedicated NVR.  I am recording at a very high frame and bit rate, it's well in excess of continuous fast (100Mbps) ethernet, from memory I think it was about 400Mbps.  To analyse the recording afterwards it's far quicker to have the data analysed within the NVR (i.e. at bus/SATA type speeds) then through an ethernet link.  My two purple 4TB drives are fairly hammered  24/7.

 

That makes sense if it was continuous recording. Did you use HikVision cameras or other brands? Having 12 5MP cameras recording all at once would put a strain on any system. I would probably have added a second Ethernet card to unraid and only run the cameras on that segment, but I'd still have to work out the constant hard drive use. Maybe use one large 4TB drive using unassigned devices plugin so it would need to use the array. I'd hate to have to install a dedicated DVR when I have a 24 port rack server with lots of space available. The Vivotek software is capable of searching video and if kind of know what time "something" happened that's probably the easiest way to search for anything I suppose. Just enter the time in. It's cool having conversations about it because it shows lots of different options out there. I would definitely want to utilize my unraid box, since it is powered on all day anyway. I looked up one of those HikVision cameras and it was around $600. Did you buy refurbs or something? My two old cameras aren't close to 5MP, but once I upgrade I want to end up with 4 cameras, which all would probably be 5mp. Also, can your cameras be operated independently using an internal webui or do you need the control software for all that?

[opentoe]

Opentoe: have you looked into Blue Iris software? For $50, it lets you mix and match up to 64 cameras and has loads and loads of features. I use mine with mobotix, hikvision and foscam cameras. (Soon to be adding + testing Areconts).

 

I also really like their mobile client (android and ios) which lets you playback recordings too.

 

I have tried their software a long time ago. Maybe two years ago? It wasn't quite polished enough and I was spoiled in having the free professional suite software from Vivotek. The only thing that would make me want to stray away from Vivotek would be their prices. Most of their cameras are for enterprise/business class so they are expensive but that's what I'm use to. Some of my friends have consumer model cameras at home and they are very grainy and limit you with what you can do with them. As an example D-Link forces you to upload all video to their cloud service and the only way for you to get that video is to downloaded back. You can't even re-direct the recording to a local drive or anything. Already have plenty of monthly bills.

[Brucey7]

I used AOTE cameras, it looks like they have come down in price, they are on eBay for about $90 and they are pretty good and Open standard any ONVIF compatible recorder capable of handling 5MP should work.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HD-CCTV-Network-5-0-Megapixel-2592-1920-5MP-10fp-3MP-1080P-IP-Camera-POE-APP-P2P/111911640930?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D35721%26meid%3Dc51f622757d945fbb36144276ef058a7%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D322016589938

 

This one comes with a 3MP lens, that's not good in a low F lens as the border tends to fish eye a bit, far better with a 5MP lens.

 

If you take the thing with my daughters purse, she dumped her jacket on the couch on Friday night when she came in from school, on Sunday she said the money had gone, we didn't have a clue when, so the software helped a lot, we had the answer in about 10 minutes.  If I had stored the recording on an unRAID share, it would have taken hours to analyse it. 

 

When I set up the NVR, I increased the bit rate and frame rate until it could only just cope with the bandwidth.  We get about 14 days across 2 of 4TB disks and then it automatically overwrites the oldest recording. The auto record on movement is a pain in the ass, moving trees outside, a cloud crossing the sky etc and it recorded, I found it far easier to analyse if I recorded continuously.

 

You can still sign on to any camera with a browser and look at the picture, change the camera settings etc, BUT the NVR will change a lot of the settings back so its better to change the setting on the NVR if it is available.  Dedicated camera only settings are things like what time or what lumen level to switch to IR and black and white.

[HellDiverUK]

I'm pretty satisfied with my HikVision cameras.  They're dome-type and run off POE.  I'm currently running a Synology 215j and Surveillance Station, but am about to move to BlueIris on Windows. 

 

Synology's web interface only works in Internet Explorer.  Duh. 

 

 

[opentoe]

Is anyone using their unraid box to record home security video? Will it tax/strain the system that much? I'm trying to consolidate as much as I can and with the available options and new features of unraid I would hope it can be used as a DVR for home security recording. I'm not against having a separate DVR for just security recording, but all the time and energy I put into my unraid system I would want to utilize it as much as possible.

 

Thanks for the info, hopefully more users will drop in with scenarios and examples. Gives me the justification on who really makes the final decisions.

 

 

 

[Griz]

I have a couple of security camera systems.  One at my home and one at my parents home.

 

Unraid would be a very poor choice for storage because of the slow speeds... It will record OK, but if you ever want to playback, it would be an incredibly frustrating experience.  You don't playback security camera footage like a movie where you start it, then sit back and watch while it streams.  You skip around, scan forwards and backwards and view multiple files at once.

 

You really need fast random access locally to the DVR/analysis software.

 

Opentoe, you seem to have a misconception about HikVision cameras...  I don't know what models you are looking at, but Hikvision gear is usually very low priced.  They are likely the largest manufacturer of security camera in the world and many other companies re-brand HikVision cameras (the Lorex and Swann cameras you see in US big box stores are usualy HikVision under the hood).  It's just odd to see you talking about HikVision being too expensive vs VivoTek

 

For the software, you can use the proprietary DVR software that you can get from VivoTek, HikVision, etc, or you can go third party if you want to mix and match brands of camera. 

 

I am using Blue Iris for my installations.  I have VivoTek, HikVison, Acti, Axis, foscam Linksys and D-link cameras.  Most of my cameras are the ~$100 HikVision DS-2CD2032-I 

You can buy them US Market from authorized resellers with warranty for ~$150 or you buy grey-market with English firmware off of Ali-express for $75 with no warranty.  I go the no warranty route.

http://www.networkcameracritic.com/?p=1791

 

This being a Linux oriented forum, I can't believe no-one have mentioned ZoneMinder yet.

[opentoe]

I have a couple of security camera systems.  One at my home and one at my parents home.

 

Unraid would be a very poor choice for storage because of the slow speeds... It will record OK, but if you ever want to playback, it would be an incredibly frustrating experience.  You don't playback security camera footage like a movie where you start it, then sit back and watch while it streams.  You skip around, scan forwards and backwards and view multiple files at once.

 

You really need fast random access locally to the DVR/analysis software.

 

Opentoe, you seem to have a misconception about HikVision cameras...  I don't know what models you are looking at, but Hikvision gear is usually very low priced.  They are likely the largest manufacturer of security camera in the world and many other companies re-brand HikVision cameras (the Lorex and Swann cameras you see in US big box stores are usualy HikVision under the hood).  It's just odd to see you talking about HikVision being too expensive vs VivoTek

 

For the software, you can use the proprietary DVR software that you can get from VivoTek, HikVision, etc, or you can go third party if you want to mix and match brands of camera. 

 

I am using Blue Iris for my installations.  I have VivoTek, HikVison, Acti, Axis, foscam Linksys and D-link cameras.  Most of my cameras are the ~$100 HikVision DS-2CD2032-I 

You can buy them US Market from authorized resellers with warranty for ~$150 or you buy grey-market with English firmware off of Ali-express for $75 with no warranty.  I go the no warranty route.

http://www.networkcameracritic.com/?p=1791

 

This being a Linux oriented forum, I can't believe no-one have mentioned ZoneMinder yet.

 

It boils down to not knowing what I need to know. That's why I did start the thread to bring out some of these points and information. I had no idea HikVision was such a popular brand. Throw in a Google search using "security cameras" and HikVision doesn't show up. At least not on the first three pages. Are you saying that these HikVision/Swann/Lorex let you record to a variety of options, one of them being an SMB network share or path? I wouldn't be recording to the unraid array. I would be recording to a single drive that's not part of the array. I'm sure these security DVR's have regular hard drives in them, correct? So if I just install these type of drives in my unraid box as unassigned drives to record all my security footage on I don't see the difference. The only reason why I said they were expensive is because I went to the HIKVision site, picked out a moderate dome camera and priced it out on Amazon. Turned out to be $600. If you are saying these cameras are selling for ~$100-$150 then I would definitely be interested in re-organizing my system utilizing that hardware.

 

I'm still at the information gathering stage right now. Which does take me forever since I work a lot. The old Vivotek camera's I have now have stood the test of time but they also have small issues. Being in focus is a pain in the neck since they each have a focus ring that needs to be adjusted manually. Next model cameras I get, I want to make sure they have auto-focus or do not need to be manually focused after installed. I don't necessarily need POE, but could come in handy. They all will be straight network drops right from the switch. There's not a high crime rate or anything but makes other family members feel a little safer when they can see what's going on outside when I'm not home.

 

Thanks for the URL. I'll look into it and also check out Ali-Express. I have ordered from there before with good luck.